Religious Freedom vs. Discrimination

Over the past year or so there has been some serious discussion on the topic of religious freedom and discrimination. These terms are thrown out so many times that sometimes I feel like Inigo Montoya from The Princess Bride. 

So I thought it was time to have an open an honest discussion on what religious freedom means and what discrimination is.

First of all, I would like to say that I am a proponent of religious freedom. Having been raised in a religion whose history is riddled with persecution and even State sanctioned terrorism (I’m looking at you Missouri i.e. the Mormon Extermination Order) I have a severe appreciate for religious freedom. The First Amendment of the United States is in clear support for freedom of religion. With that in mind, I wholeheartedly believe that to have freedom of religion we must also have freedom FROM religion. I loved this quote from Thomas Jefferson which appears to agree with my sentiments:

“Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between Man & his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, & not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should "make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof," thus building a wall of separation between Church & State. Adhering to this expression of the supreme will of the nation in behalf of the rights of conscience, I shall see with sincere satisfaction the progress of those sentiments which tend to restore to man all his natural rights, convinced he has no natural right in opposition to his social duties”

I think we all have a clear understanding of what “freedom of religion” means, but do we understand what “freedom from religion” denotes? In my humble opinion, it means far more than the State refraining from declaring an official religion. It points out that legislating any religious belief is wrong and is a great infringement on religious freedom itself. 

With those thoughts I would like to jump to the current climate of the discrimination and religious freedom debate. These topics have been brought up most frequently as of late in relation to the legalization of gay marriage, in addition to the court cases of businesses refusing to serve gay customers. In each case you have one side screaming discrimination and another shouting religious freedom. So which one is it? So, from someone raised and still active in a very conservative Christian faith, let me break this down a little bit.

The businesses in question (specifically the photographer and baker), claimed that according to religious freedom, they could refuse service to a gay couple wanting their services for their wedding ceremony and celebration. The gay couples sued citing the 14^th amendment (along with other case law noting that 1^st amendment liberties are not allowed to trample on the 14^th amendment rights of others). Both of the businesses lost their cases and were told that they needed to serve gay couples in the future.

But wait? What about religious freedom? It’s not discrimination, it’s their sincerely held religious beliefs! Well, here’s where my straight to the point and honest opinion comes in: this is most definitely discrimination. Now, let me tell you why. Conservative Christians have a long list of things that they disagree with religiously. Now the list varies depending on denomination and even more so on how closely one adheres to the traditional beliefs of one’s chosen denomination. For the purpose of this post, I’m going to list off a quick “Big No No” list of generalities shared by many conservative (note the use of conservative) Christian denominations:

-premarital sex

-having children out of wedlock

-drug and alcohol use

-tattoos (varies by denomination)

-divorce

-cohabitation before marriage

-Foul language

-Pornography

-Homosexuality

-Immodesty

So that list goes on, but those are some examples of with which many conservative Christians are not ok. Looking at that list think about how many people in this country alone fall under just one of those categories. I mean, we have a 50% divorce rate, and in all reality those statistics are greatly off base and the number is most likely closer to 70%. So, are those business owners refusing service to people who fall in the other categories? I would venture to guess, not so much. If they did, they would pretty much go out of business, because a great majority of Americans fall somewhere in these categories. That is why refusal to serve gays is discrimination. Photographers (at least none I’ve heard of) refuse to take newborn photos of an unwed mother. Bakeries don’t refuse to bake cakes of a second marriage. They don’t refuse service to a mother ordering a birthday cake for her son born out of wedlock. They don’t refuse to take family photos of two heterosexual individuals happily coupled and living together. However, many people see that it’s ok to refuse service to gays. You can’t have it both ways. You either refuse service to all things that you disagree with religiously or you serve everyone. But I bet you think that refusing to take pictures of a baby born out of wedlock demonstrates a lack of human kindness. So how does refusing to take a picture of two consenting adults committing into a long-term relationship not equate to that same lack of human kindness? You don’t have to agree with someone’s lifestyle to love them. You don’t have to agree with their choices (term used loosely as gay people do not ‘choose’ to be gay) to show human kindness.

As a final note, I would like to point out what is an infringement on religious freedom. Most people agree on the fact (including most in the LGBT community) that requiring a church, a pastor, a priest, a bishop, etc. to hold or perform a gay marriage when they do not believe in gay marriage is an infringement on religious freedom. That being said, a pastor and a baker are not the same thing. A baker makes cakes. A photographer takes pictures. That's it. You don't have to advertise the cake or the pictures on your website. I know that none of my services have ended up as advertisement for someone's website. So, unless you are a specific representative of a religious organization performing a religious ordinance, gay people are not infringing on your religious rights. Refusing to serve gays, on the other hand, infringes on their rights and is discrimination, unless you refuse to serve all the other aforementioned categories.

I would love to hear any friendly and intelligent discussion on my thoughts. Any name calling or comments such as “Well if you just had more faith…” are not welcome and frankly are not arguments. They are blatant attempts to make yourself seem better than someone instead of making a logical rebuttal. I know I’m going to take a hit for this one, but it’s something I’ve had many thoughts about lately.